WLC: PARALLEL WORLDS: EXPLORING CULTURES & SYMBOLS
In the spring semester of 2020, I took a World Language and Culture class titled Parallel Worlds: Exploring Cultures & Symbols. In this class, we read books and watched movies to evaluate how different cultures highlight the importance of water in pop culture. The four countries that we focused on were Germany, France, Norway, and Spain. Through this class, I learned that water is considered to be a universally important resource, but the resource value differs between different cultures. As we read the books, such as Kon Tiki and Crossing the Mangrove, and watched movies from the different cultures, we discussed our thoughts about the book and the symbolism that was going on as a class. As final projects for each unit, we had to write a paper about the symbolism and why it was important.
Through this class, I learned a lot about how differently I value water than people in other regions of the world. I think that the main difference in why I value water differently is because of where I am from. Being from a land-locked state, we do not value water for much other than a source of drinking water. In the books that we read for this class, water was worth way more than just something to drink, but they used it as a form of transportation. Without using the water around them, they would have not been able to trade and get the supplies they needed to survive. Being land locked, I rely on the roads to exchange the goods that I need to survive. Because of this difference, the people in the four studied areas give more value to water than what I do. Additionally, the time period that these stories were written also have an influence. Today, it is easy to get from point A to point B and it does not take much thought on how you will get there. When these stories were written/when the story line takes place, traveling across to another place on your continent, let alone to a new continent, was hard and took a lot of thought and planning. Using the water around them was one of the easiest ways that they had to travel since they could follow the path of the water with minimal energy input. I think that reading all of these stories has allowed me to learn what questions to ask when evaluating the importance of something to others, such as the question “How does location affect how you use a resource” or “How important is the resource to you from a in a political standpoint?” I think that this class has allowed me to learn how to compare my experiences and identity to those of others. I think that other aspects of my life that may influence how I view something compared to another could be in the activities that I do, how I grew up (ie lifestyle/family relationships), and being from the US, and having European influences.
I plan to continue to expand my intercultural engagement with others through what I have learned in this class. I have learned that even something as simple as water can be valued so differently between cultures even if it is used in the same way. It is important to know how a more dominant aspect of our lives can be so variable in between cultures. Through this class, I have learned how to critically think and reflect on what I can learn about other cultures through both fiction and non-fiction reading. This will allow me to learn more from reading about a culture before I visit a place to learn about what is important to them and why. Although through this class I have learned a lot about how to learn about a culture through media, this class did not teach me a lot about how to interact with people of a different culture. Therefore, something that I still need to work on is how to apply what I learn from reading to actual real-life conversations and experiences that I have. This is something I can only learn through having experiences with people.